


Something to Believe In

by FanFics4allppl



Series: The Life and Times of EraserMic [2]
Category: Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Provisional Hero Licensing Exam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:15:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26161747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanFics4allppl/pseuds/FanFics4allppl
Summary: The Provisional Hero Licencing Exam is here, and the Three Dumbigos try their best to make it. At the same time, Shota and Hizashi realize something important.
Relationships: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Erasermic - Relationship
Series: The Life and Times of EraserMic [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1894231
Kudos: 38





	Something to Believe In

**Author's Note:**

> I've gotten an idea to make this into a series, so ...  
> This fic is a continuation of "A Little Perseverance, a Little Uphill Climb", but can be read as a stand-alone fic.
> 
> Also, the title is from a song with the same name from the musical Newsies. You can go listen to it if you'd like; it was a kind of inspiration for this fic, after all.

The first semester at UA had been filled with activities such as the Sports Festival, picking Hero names (Oboro, Hizashi, and Shota picked Loud Cloud, Present Mic, and Eraserhead, respectively – well, Shota didn't really care about his name, so Hizashi picked his, too), doing internships under Pro Heroes, studying, training, and many other things, but the day had finally come for the first years to take a shot at the Provisional Hero Licening Exam.

For Shota, the day came too early.

»You excited, Hizashi?« Oboro asked, grinning like a madman, when they got onto the school bus.

»Hell yeah! Shota?«

Shota looked at the ground. »If they're gonna have us fighting robots, then I'm a goner.«

»Oh, come on. We're not gonna fight robots,« Oboro replied first.

»Besides, it won't be every person for themselves. Whatever comes our way, we'll stick together, right?« Hizashi added and Oboro immediately nodded.

»Thanks for the pep talk, guys, but what if we get split up?« Shota asked, always the skeptic.

»Relax, dude,« the blue-haired teenager said, putting an arm around Shota's shoulders »We'll deal with whatever comes our way, okay?«

Shota looked away, but nodded anyway.

Hizashi's text ringtone sounded from his left front pocket, and he pulled out his phone.

»Tensei says 'good luck to you and your class, too'.«

* * *

»This will be something similar to 'get the flag',« a tired old man started explaining once all of the students from the various schools from all over the country were seated in the giant room.

»So, there are flags of twenty different colours. Each of you will start off with flags of five different colours. The goal is to get fifteen flags of different colours to the exit,« he said, motioning towards the one and only door in the room with his head.

»Yes, you can steal flags from other students, and yes, the flags have tracking devices woven into them, so we'll know if you're cheating by not bringing enough flags. Oh, also, if anyone has trouble with colour vision, flags with different colours also have different numbers on them, so don't worry about it. The first 100 people to finish get to go to the second stage. That's it,« the man finally finished.

»Begin.«

The students started looking at each other, confused.

»Right, sorry. The flags are under your seats,« the man added into the microphone, then disappeared into thin air. That was probably his quirk.

Hizashi, Oboro, and Shota reached under their seats, like the students around them. True to the man's words, the flags were there. Shota's flags all had some kind of pastel colours, numbered 2, 3, 4, 7, and 14.

Suddenly, the roof folded into itself and the walls of the room fell over to the outside, and the students found themselves in a giant stadium-like building. It looked like it was divided into many different parts; a forest, a city, rocky hills, a swamp, and so on.

»Wait,« said Hizashi. »Where's the exit supposed to be now?«

»The guy really didn't say anything about that ... Maybe he forgot?« tried Oboro.

»Or it's part of the test,« Shota said.

Shota looked around, and even though there were no more walls anywhere close, the space around them seemed to get smaller.

»Shit,« Shota crused. »Oboro, cloud, now!«

The teenager raised an eyebrow, but called his cloud anyway. Shota grabbed Hizashi's hand and they hopped on, Oboro close behind them.

»Get them!« some student shouted, and suddenly everyone was quickly making their way towards UA's Class 1-A.

»Ah,« Oboro said, and flew them away as quickly as he could.

They had to dodge a few flying-type quirk users and even more long range attacks, but they finally made it to a seemingly safe place on top of a rocky hill, away from the room where they had started.

»How'd you know that would happen?« Oboro asked, slightly out of breath.

»The Sports Festival is broadcast all over the country. Everyone in there knew what our quirks are, so, information-wise, they had a head start,« Shota explained.

He sighed.

»We're doing this together, right?«

The other two nodded, and Shota put his five flags on the floor. Hizashi and Oboro put their flags next to his. They checked what flags they already had, so they knew what to look out for.

»So,« Oboro started. »We need to get thirty more flags, and we need to find out where the exit is. And we preferably have to do both of those things before most of the people here.«

Shota nodded.

»Let's get to it, then,« Hizashi said with a smile.

* * *

Shota kept track of which flags they already had, so they always knew which flags to prioritize. In the end, they managed to get additional 35 flags, so they had a few extra in case they lost any before they could find the exit.

The test had already been going on for well over an hour, but so far none of the applicants had managed to finish the exam.

»Dammit! I bet that old geezer just forgot to tell us!« Oboro started ranting for the third time in the last fifteen minutes. »I mean, he already almost forgot to tell us that we already had the flags!«

»Dude, chill,« said Hizashi.

»Chill? How am I supposed to chill? It'd be another thing if we had to hurry to get the last few spots, but literally _no one_ has finished yet!«

»I agree that it's frustrating, but please don't be so loud, Oboro,« Shota said. »We don't want people to find us, remember? Besides, it's not like we have any ideas left.«

»Exactly,« Oboro said, putting a little less volume behind the rest of the rant. »We've looked _everywhere_. The stadium walls don't have any holes. We've looked through the rocky hills – no secret tunnels. We've walked around the whole _labyrinth_ of a city – nothing. I even swam to the bottom of the swamp to check the ground beneath it!«

»What if we ... go to the exit?« Hizashi slowly said.

»Hizashi, I swear I'm gonna go on a rampage – «

»What do you mean?« Shota asked.

»Well, when that guy told us to get the flags to the exit, he motioned towards the door of the room.«

»And then the walls fell over, what's your point?« Oboro pressed, agitated.

Hizashi's shoulders slumped a bit because of the other's attitude. »The door's still in the wall.«

»Seriously? That's your plan?«

»It's worth a try,« Shota said. »Unless you have a better idea, Oboro?«

The cloud quirk user pouted, then huffed, »Fine.«

They slowly made their way back towards the big room. It was out in the open, but by that point they were desperate to finally find the exit. They ran to the wall with the door. Shota and Oboro were looking around to prevent anyone from surprising them, while Hizashi got the honour to try his idea.

He untied the flags from his belt and laid them onto the door. Nothing happened.

»Shit,« he cursed under his breath.

»How's it going?« Shota asked, spotting two students at the edge of the woods looking at them, and he showed them to Oboro. They were staying away, so they weren't a problem yet, but Shota thought it best to keep an eye on them.

»Gimme just a moment,« Hizashi said, trying to stall while he tried to think of what to do.

While staring off into the distance, he tried to keep his head low, so it would at least look like he's trying to do something. He found himself looking at the window in the door. It was pitch black, of course, since there was only the ground beneath it –

Except it wasn't pitch black. There was some light.

»Wait a minute ...« Hizashi said. »Please be right for once ...«

He took a hold of the doorknobs and opened the double door upwards. Under the now open door were stairs leading down into a tunnel.

»Guys,« Hizashi said, a smile creeping onto his face.

Shota and Oboro turned around.

»Hizashi, you lucky bastard,« Oboro said, already less tense.

The blonde grinned at them, grabbed his flags, and started down the stairs. Once his whole body was under ground level, a voice sounded from the speakers that were scattered around the space.

»Wow, someone finally got to the exit! Can we wrap this up, now, please?«

Shota walked after Hizashi, and Oboro went down last, closing the door behind him.

»Two more have passed! Only 97 people to go ... Ugh ...« they heard from above the doors.

»Nice one Hizashi,« Shota beamed at his friend.

»Yeah, and uh, sorry for getting angry like that,« Oboro apologized.

Hizashi smiled.

»We just gotta believe in each other, right?«

* * *

Two more places were quickly filled by the two students who had been watching from the edge of the woods, but then it took another hour and a half for all 100 places to be filled. Thankfully, everyone from their class had made it through.

By then, the trio was well-rested and well-fed, since there was lots of food in the room right down the tunnel.

The applicants were told they had another thirty minutes before the second stage, which would be a rescue exercise.

When the thirty minutes passed, they were told that their only goal was to ensure the safety of people/actors who had been caught in a Villain attack – that was the scenario they were going with.

»The round will be over once all of the civilians are on the grounds marked 'safe'. Now get out there.«

The students rushed back out through the tunnel. The different parts of the stadium were now all in ruins.

Shota, Oboro, and Hizashi stuck together and teamed up with a few other students from different schools, who had sensory-type quirks. The other students looked for people, then Hizashi shouted from a distance at a non-destructive volume to check if they were conscious. They all helped the people to safety, Oboro using his cloud quirk to transport the people who couldn't walk or to help people get down from higher places. Shota, who had been acing his first aid classes, checked the people over for their injuries, helping those who needed immediate medical attention.

The students knew these were only actors, but they all took the exercise seriously, and they were doing very well. That was, until the tired old man started talking through the speakers.

»One thing Heroes need to be prepared for in scenarios such as this one, is watching out for Villains. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they haven't been defeated in the first place, so ...«

»What's he trying to say with tha- « Hizashi started, but was interrupted when the ground started shaking.

There was an explosion somewhere to their left.

»Loud Cloud,« one of the other students said. »Gimme a lift?«

»Sure thing, Telescope.«

The student jumped onto the cloud that appeared by his side. The cloud flew up above the surrounding buildings. When it came back down, Telescope reported.

»It's a Pro Hero, but I believe he's supposed to be a Villain in this scenario. I think his name is Sludge or something like that.«

»That's the guy that can liquify his body, right?« Hizashi asked, and Telescope nodded.

»How do you even defeat a guy like that?« another student, X-Ray, asked.

»Maybe by compressing the air around him?« Oboro tried. »Or if someone can solidify him. Maybe fluid manipulation? But since we don't know what quirks the other people here have, we're really only guessing, anyway.«

»I could try using my quirk,« Hizashi said. »He can probably still hear when he's in liquid form.«

Shota looked at the ground. »Or someone could erase his quirk, so he can be fought normally.«

Hizashi looked at Oboro, and the cloud quirk user nodded.

»We'll take care of things here, you two go get the Villain.«

Shota had a worried expression on his face, but Hizashi just grinned, took his hand, and lead him towards the acting Villain.

»I can run on my own,« Shota huffed, pulling his hand back to himself.

»I know you can. You just needed a push to start running,« Hizashi said with a smile on his face. »Well, it was more of a pull than a push, but whatever.«

They soon got to the Pro Hero. They stopped to take in their surroundings. The Hero stood in the middle of a clearing. There was a small river nearby, and an few trees, but otherwise the field was flat and filled with grass.

»Don't let him get to the river!« a student shouted from their right. »He'll be able to travel much faster in there and we can't afford to lose him!«

Shota nodded at the student, who seemed slightly younger than them.

»Are there any civilians here?« Hizashi shouted back.

»No, this area's clear,« the student told them, now close enough that he didn't have to shout.

»Good,« Hizashi said.

He pointed his hand-speakers towards the Hero, then took a deep breath.

» _YEAHHHHHHHH!_ « he shouted.

The Pro Hero put his hands over his face, then charged towards the blonde, planning to knock him out before he became too much of a nuisance. Suddenly, a smaller orb of water hit the Hero from the side, so he fell to the ground.

»I'm Manual, by the way,« the other student said.

»I go by Eraser, and this is Present Mic.«

Hizashi took a deep breath and yelled at the Hero again.

»Water manipulation?« Shota asked Manual, who had clearly been the one to throw the water.

»Liquid manipulation, actually, but apparently it doesn't work on sentient liquid.«

Shota took a second to think.

»Can you pack a bigger punch with that?«

»I can, but I'd need a bigger amount of water, and I really don't want to floor this place, because it'll just make it easier for Sludge to get away from us.«

»Do you think he can breathe under water?«

»I just said it'd be bad if he got to the river.«

»I know,« Shota said, »but what if you get a bubble of water around his head?«

»You ask me, he doesn't have problems being underwater in his liquid form.«

»What about in his solid form?« Shota asked while Hizashi took another breath and screamed.

»In his solid form? Probably not, but how do we make him do that?«

»Leave that to me,« Shota said.

Hizashi fell to his knees, wheezing.

»Hizashi!« the erasure quirk user yelled, and ran to his friend.

»Sorry, I'm ... a bit outta breath,« the blonde said, barely getting the words out from using too much air too quickly earlier.

»Watch out!« the Manual yelled and knocked the Hero off course with a small orb of water one more time.

»You got this,« Hizashi soflty said and smiled. »I believe in you.«

Shota nodded, determined to take the Hero down. Hizashi passed out in his arms, and Shota gently laid him down on the ground.

»Let's do it!« he shouted at the liquid manipulator, and the other teenager nodded.

Shota activated his quirk and threw his capture weapon at the Pro Hero. He tried to dodge by turning into his liquid form, but his quirk wasn't working, so the cloth easily wrapped around him, pinning him to the spot.

»Now!« Shota yelled.

Manual threw a slightly bigger orb of water at the Hero, and when it encased his head, the teenager kept it in place.

Shota had severly underestimated the time by which the Hero would be out, and after a minute and a half his eyes stung like hell. He desperately wanted to take the eye drops from his pocket, but he was holding down the Pro Hero with both his hands.

»Hizashi,« Shota called.

The blonde, who had woken up not too long ago, got up, and hurried over to his friend. Without having to be told what the problem was, he fished the eye drops out of Shota's pocket. Shota angled his head slightly upwards, but still kept the Pro Hero in his line of sight.

Hizashi dropped the liquid into the right eye first, then only when Shota had both eyes open again, did he do the same with the left eye.

»Thanks,« Shota said.

»No problem,« Hizashi replied, closing the bottle and putting it back into Shota's pocket.

It took another half a minute before the Pro Hero finally stopped struggling. Hizashi pinched him a couple of times, and when the Hero didn't react at all, he nodded to the other two students.

Manual immediately sent the orb back to the river, and Shota slowly released his quirk as well. The liquid manipulator crouched down next to the Hero.

»Okay, he's breathing. Why did I realize only now how badly this could've gone?«

Hizashi came closer to Shota, his smile shining brightly. Shota smiled back, and soon Hizashi was wrapping him in a tight hug.

»We did it!« he exclaimed, excited, and pressed his lips to Shota's.

Before Shota had a chance to react in any way, though, the blonde pulled back and took two steps away, his face as red as a tomato.

»You know we could've killed him, right?« Manual asked, finally looking up at the two. »What happened?«

»We more or less just knocked him out,« Shota said, his voice as steady as he could keep it, diverting Manual's attention away from Hizashi's flushed face. »We were very careful, after all.«

»Yeah, I guess we _were_ very careful.«

»You think anyone still needs help?« Hizashi asked, his face now only slightly pink.

»Aaand that's it! That was everyone!« the man announced over the speakers. »Everyone please take thirty minutes off, then come back here.«

Manual stood up. »Good work, guys. I think I'll stay with this guy until someone comes get him, just in case y'know, but you two have fun.«

Hizashi nodded. »Maybe we'll meet again someday, right?«

»Maybe,« Manual said, smiling.

They said their goodbyes, and Hizashi and Shota made their way to the underground room.

»So, um, about what happened earlier – « Hizashi began.

»Yo! Guys! Did you take down the Villain? Or Hero or whatever?« Oboro yelled from behind, joining them on their way down the tunnel.

»We took him down, yeah. But we had some help from a guy called Manual,« Shota told his friend.

* * *

The whole class had gotten their Provisional Hero Licences, and once they were all together and waiting for their bus, their homeroom teacher told them how immensely proud he was of them - he had watched the whole exam from the bleachers.

»You all still have things you have to figure out,« he said, somehow inconspicuously looking directly at Shota and Hizashi, the latter already slightly blushing. »But, even though this was only the first step into the right direction, I am still very proud about how far you all have already gotten.«

At that moment, the bus arrived.

»Back row!« Oboro shouted at his two friends. »Hizashi, you okay?« he asked when he saw the colour of the blonde's face.

»Yeah, yeah, nothing to worry about. Back row?«

The blue-haired teenager grinned and made his way down the bus, Hizashi and Shota following behind him.

The trio talked for a while, but then Oboro fell asleep, exhausted from using his quirk so much. The other two were quiet for a couple of minutes.

»So,« Hizashi started. »About earlier ... Uh ...«

»Do you want to go get a drink sometime?« Shota asked quietly before the other could finish.

»I- uh- ... What?«

»You know, like, do you want to go out?«

»Like ... on a- ... on a date?« Hizashi asked, as quietly as he could.

Shota blushed and nodded. »Y-yeah. Like on a date.«

»Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that.«

Hizashi smiled, and Shota couldn't help but smile back.

»We don't have school tomorrow,« Hizashi started, »and I think Oboro said he's going somewhere with his family, so we could maybe go tomorrow? We could visit that cozy café on my street.«

Shota nodded. »I have time, yeah.«

»Great. It's a date, then.«

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it!
> 
> More stories about our two favourite UA teachers will be up in the upcoming days, so yay


End file.
